SUPPLY CHAIN SCHEDULING FOR MULTI-MACHINES AND MULTI-CUSTOMERS

View/Open

Date

2015-09-24

Author

Han, Bin

Type

Thesis

Degree Level

Doctoral

Abstract

Manufacturing today is no longer a single point of production activity but a chain of activities from the acquisition of raw materials to the delivery of products to customers. This chain is called supply chain. In this chain of activities, a generic pattern is: processing of goods (by manufacturers) and delivery of goods (to customers). This thesis concerns the
scheduling operation for this generic supply chain. Two performance measures considered for evaluation of a particular schedule are: time and cost. Time refers to a span of the time that the manufacturer receives the request of goods from the customer to the time
that the delivery tool (e.g. vehicle) is back to the manufacturer. Cost refers to the delivery cost only (as the production cost is considered as fi xed). A good schedule is thus with short time and low cost; yet the two may be in conflict. This thesis studies the algorithm for the supply chain scheduling problem to achieve a balanced short time and low cost.
Three situations of the supply chain scheduling problem are considered in this thesis: (1) a single machine and multiple customers, (2) multiple machines and a single customer and (3) multiple machines and multiple customers. For each situation, di fferent vehicles characteristics
and delivery patterns are considered. Properties of each problem are explored
and algorithms are developed, analysed and tested (via simulation).
Further, the robustness of the scheduling algorithms under uncertainty and the resilience of the scheduling algorithms under disruptions are also studied. At last a case study, about medical resources supply in an emergency situation, is conducted to illustrate how
the developed algorithms can be applied to solve the practical problem.
There are both technical merits and broader impacts with this thesis study. First, the problems studied are all new problems with the particular new attributes such as on-line, multiple-customers and multiple-machines, individual customer oriented, and limited capacity of delivery tools. Second, the notion of robustness and resilience to evaluate a scheduling algorithm are to the best of the author's knowledge new and may be open to a new avenue for the evaluation of any scheduling algorithm. In the domain of manufacturing and service provision in general, this thesis has provided an e ffective and effi cient tool for managing the operation of production and delivery in a situation where the demand
is released without any prior knowledge (i.e., on-line demand). This situation appears in many manufacturing and service applications.